Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI) was in 7 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of December. OMPI has seen a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. There were 7 hedge funds in our database with OMPI positions at the end of the previous quarter.
According to most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as underperforming, old financial vehicles of the past. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading today, we hone in on the moguls of this club, around 450 funds. It is estimated that this group oversees the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by keeping an eye on their top investments, we have determined a number of investment strategies that have historically outpaced the S&P 500 index. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per annum for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have topped the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (check out a sample of our picks).
Equally as integral, positive insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are plenty of reasons for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would buy. Many empirical studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if piggybackers know what to do (learn more here).
Consequently, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action regarding Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI).
What does the smart money think about Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI)?
At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 7 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.
Of the funds we track, Royce & Associates, managed by Chuck Royce, holds the largest position in Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI). Royce & Associates has a $7.4 million position in the stock, comprising less than 0.1%% of its 13F portfolio. On Royce & Associates’s heels is Visium Asset Management, managed by Jacob Gottlieb, which held a $6.9 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Judging by the fact that Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI) has witnessed declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there is a sect of fund managers that decided to sell off their full holdings last quarter. Intriguingly, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management sold off the largest position of the 450+ funds we watch, valued at an estimated $1.2 million in stock.. Joel Greenblatt’s fund, Gotham Asset Management, also cut its stock, about $1 million worth. These moves are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
How are insiders trading Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI)?
Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI). These stocks are Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX), XenoPort, Inc. (NASDAQ:XNPT), 3SBio Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:SSRX), Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSIR), and Vical Incorporated (NASDAQ:VICL). This group of stocks are the members of the biotechnology industry and their market caps are similar to OMPI’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| XenoPort, Inc. (NASDAQ:XNPT) | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| 3SBio Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:SSRX) | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSIR) | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Vical Incorporated (NASDAQ:VICL) | 8 | 5 | 0 |
With the returns exhibited by our studies, everyday investors must always monitor hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Obagi Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
